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Subagent-Driven Development (SADD) SOP

Subagent-Driven Development (SADD) is a methodology for parallelizing complex tasks across specialized autonomous AI agents with isolated context boundaries. This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) formalizes how we spawn, review, and merge subagent work at Zero-Shot Agency.

1. When to Spawn Subagents

Subagents should be instantiated for tasks that are: - Highly Parallelizable: Tasks with minimal shared state, such as researching different concepts simultaneously. - Deeply Specialized: Tasks requiring extensive reasoning in an isolated domain (e.g., deep code refactoring, system architecture design). - Context Heavy: Tasks that would flood the primary orchestrator's context window.

Do NOT use subagents for minor mechanical tasks, single file patches, or trivial tool usage. Use direct CLI tools or scripts.

2. Handling Context Boundaries

  • Strict Isolation: Subagents have no memory of the overarching conversation. The orchestrator must provide absolute file paths, detailed error messages, and explicit constraints.
  • Verification over Trust: Subagents self-report their completion. The orchestrator must manually verify side-effects (e.g., checking if a file was written, reading back its contents) before proceeding.
  • Timeboxing: Avoid long-running subagents. If a task is durable, use the cronjob or background flags instead of delegate_task.

3. Subagent Review Processes

All subagent output must undergo a strict review process by the orchestrator: - The Visual Diff Check: Run git diff against subagent changes. Look out for duplicate lines, unintended deletions, or malformed syntax. - The Scope Check: Run git status to ensure untracked files or hidden agent directories (e.g., .entire/) haven't been picked up. - The Syntax Check: Run native syntax validators on any code modified by the subagent (e.g., python -m py_compile or bash -n).

4. Git Branch Management

Zero-Shot Agency enforces strict Git protocols to maintain codebase integrity.

  • No Main Commits: Never commit directly to the main branch.
  • Branching Convention: Check out branches using the format drafts/[name] for content or feature/[name] for code (e.g., drafts/issue-166-sadd-sop).
  • PRs Only: All subagent work must be merged via Pull Requests. The orchestrator or human loop script creates the PR.
  • Zero-Blind-Commit: Agents must never execute git commit or push blindly. Stage exactly the files meant to be committed using git add <specific_file_path>. The Ralph loop script will handle the final commit and push.